Chris Barker

Chris Barker has produced a number of books, zines and prints for Peakrill Press. 

You may not have heard of Chris, but there’s a good chance you’ve come across his work. He is probably best known for his annual Sergeant Pepper-style tributes to dead celebrities, which started in 2016:

sgtpepper2016. See also sgtpepper2017, sgtpepper2018, sgtpepper2019, sgtpepper2020, sgtpepper2021 and sgtpepper2022

He also knocks out satirical images with astounding frequency, honed by many years’ entries to the weekly b3ta photoshop challenge. The first of these to go viral was a fake Sky News graphic which generated so much outrage that Sky had to put out a press release denying it. Nowadays Chris seems to have a humorous response to every political scandal posted to his Twitter account within minutes of it happening.

In 2017, Chris’s response to the Grenfell Tower fire was picked up and used by the New European newspaper. They subsequently commissioned Chris to create many of their cover images, to the extent that his covers have almost come to define the magazine’s brand:

 
 

Most recently, Chris’s “Brush Strokes – the Fine Art of Light Entertainment” images were exhibited at London’s Museum of Comedy and published as a book.

     
 

Chris also has a day job as an art director on prestigious magazines including Campaign, and he was responsible for designing every one of 2012’s daily Olympics and Paralympics programmes.

 

 

Chris has also written a series of kids‘ novels proving that, infuriatingly, he can do words as well as pictures.

Over 20 years ago, I remember Chris hawking around some half-finished comic that he’d been working on. I didn’t hear any more about it, and assumed that Chris had got bored/busy and binned the idea. Turns out he’d just been gestating it. Now, more than 23 years after the end of the 90s, Dregs of Rudetown is finally ready for publication. Here’s a preview of a section which covers the defining moment of the 1990s: 

     

We also published Chris's newspaper satire, Deathstar Express, about which he wrote:

This project combines three of my hobbies: parodying the state of modern politics, science fiction and staying up late to see the front pages of tomorrow’s newspapers.

I do a lot of – I suppose you would call it – memeing online. Most days on social media you’ll find me parodying the latest news in some kind of vague satirical way. It doesn’t make much difference to be honest but sometimes I like to think it makes people think – or at least laugh. If it even changes one person’s mind or makes them stop and look for a minute, it’s worth it.

Last summer I was camping in Dorset and away from my laptop so I had a chance to stop and think myself for a change. I saw someone in the campsite sitting and reading The Daily Mail or the Daily Express and on the front page it said: “Are the French to blame for Calais crisis” or something like that and I thought what the hell are you doing just lapping up this OBVIOUS propaganda? It’s like the Tory PR pamphlet or something.

So it got me thinking what the easiest way to explain that would be and I came up with the idea of The Deathstar Express. Immediately the idea made me chuckle. So as I went about the rest of my holiday I thought of lots of different stories that could feature on the front page of this publication if it existed. Obviously the first main story became “Were rebels to blame for destruction of Alderaan?” But I realised I could do five or six other jokes on every front page and started thinking how each character could be represented in this parody Star Wars universe. Princess Leia became a kind of woke Meghan Markle character, Vader became Dishy Darth – leader of the ruling party, Brexit became the Naboo trade deal and Kenobi quickly became a kind of Jeremy Corbyn.

The idea made me laugh and when I explained it to my friend Sam he kind of got it too. So I made some notes and then put one together when I got home. I shared it online and it went down very well. People got the wider joke instantly. And I would probably have left it at that if someone hadn’t pointed out I missed the chance to use the phrase “Ewoke”.

Obviously this meant I had to do another one. And then the characters started to flesh themselves out so I couldn’t stop. Tarkin’s controversial bank account closure, the “myth” of galactic warming, the failing Death Star 2 project… I kept thinking of new ideas. And then I started incorporating the news of the day into them and people started really getting into the theme. The Bothan prison barge, Loony Lando’s controversial cloud car tax… I could go on… and I obviously DID go on…

This publication showcases the whole collection in a unique signed, limited print run for you to own. You’ll be able to read (the opening paragraphs of) the stories to your heart’s content and treasure them forever. 

“A masterful satirical reimagining of current world events viewed from the perspective of a newspaper in the pocket of the evil Empire. From a galaxy that unfortunately doesn’t feel that far away…”
Alastair Campbell

“A fantastical world of arcane tradition, abused power, betrayal, conflict, failing technology and oppression… all set in the Star Wars universe.
If Chris the Barker’s genius Daily Express/Star Wars mash ups lead to civil servants and Whitehall mandarins all privately calling Boris Johnson ‘Jabba The Gut’, it’ll be worth it.
The satire strikes back.”
Phil Jupitus

“It’s hard to parody the worst paper in the world but Chris has excelled by taking it out of this galaxy with more of his brilliant satirical graphics”
James Brown

“A long time ago in a galaxy far far away there was sensible ordered grown-up politics that brought about peace prosperity and joy to all. Sadly we don’t live in that one, so instead we get this – a book so funny it feels like a Jedi mind trick.”
Rufus Hound

“Arch, clever, unique, adequate”
Cold War Steve